SECRET WITNESS LINK TO ROBBERY

A Melbourne lawyer believes a break-in at his office may have been an
attempt to find files on a secret witness who was forced to leave Australia
after giving evidence against a major drug ring.

Corrupt police had already burgled the drug squad to try to find where the
witness - codenamed E2/92 - was living.

The latest burglary was at the office of the witness's lawyer, Mr Paul
Duggan, only two weeks after E2/92 left Australia in April.

Mr Duggan said his 11th-floor office in St Kilda Road was burgled over
Easter, but the thieves appeared to be searching for information rather
than valuables.

They hacked into his office computer and broke open a filing cabinet filled
with legal documents.

"My immediate reaction was that someone was looking for something of a
sensitive nature," Mr Duggan said.

He said the thieves took a dictaphone, mobile phone and computer disks, and
locked the door after they left.

Police have additional information to support the theory that robbery was
not the motive for the break-in, that and the thieves were trying to find
E2/92.

Mr Duggan said he believed his unmarked files on the secret witness were
not disturbed. "I am satisfied the file has not been compromised," he said.
"There is a large number of offices in this building and it would appear
mine was the only one targeted ... that it was not a random choice."

There are several similarities between the drug squad break-in and the one
at Mr Duggan's office. Both robberies were in St Kilda Road, one occurred
over Easter and the other over Christmas, and both offices contained files
on E2/92.

The secret witness went undercover to gather evidence against Australia's
biggest amphetamines syndicate, headed by John William Samuel Higgs.

He was the key witness in Operation Phalanx, a drug squad investigation
that resulted in the arrest of 135 suspects and the discovery of $371,000
in cash and $415,000 in counterfeit United States currency. Police also
seized farms, cars, guns and eight tonnes of chemicals capable of producing
amphetamines then valued at more than $200million.

Police say E2/92 was the single most important intelligence-gathering
resource for Australian law enforcement. Operation Phalanx was to last
eight years, produce 600 intelligence reports and spawn 16 separate task
forces. It smashed the most sophisticated drug syndicate in the country.

The witness went into protection and was forced to leave Australia with his
family in 1996. Over the Christmas-New Year break of 1996-97 thieves broke
into the drug squad office and stole more than 100 statements from E2/92.
They also took documents that identified his address in England, forcing
him to move again.

He returned to Australia this year to fight for compensation, but left
again last month saying law-enforcement authorities had failed to deliver
on promises to settle him in a new country and pay reasonable compensation.
He was paid $350,000, which he said was less than his original agreement.

After being told of the break-in at his lawyer's office, E2/92 told The
Sunday Age: "When is this all going to end? I have been given so little
support. I have lost my country because I gave evidence and now I wonder if
any one cares.

"When you think that they broke into the drug squad to try to find me I
have no doubt they would be prepared to go through my lawyer's office to
try to find where I am."

He said police had not fulfilled a promise to get him resident's status. "I
have given my evidence. I am yesterday's man," he said.